STORRS, Conn. -- It may not have been the scenario he preferred, but Bay City native T.J. Weist earned his first head coaching job Monday.

Weist was promoted to interim head coach for the University of Connecticut football team when the university fired Paul Pasqualoni four games into the season.

“I am very pleased to elevate T.J. to our interim head coaching
position,” Warde Manuel, director of athletics for the UConn, said in a press release. “T.J. will bring energy and enthusiasm to our
football team as we embark on our American Athletic Conference schedule.
T.J. will provide stability to our football student-athletes during
this time of transition and will also effectively oversee all elements
of our football program, including game preparation, classroom success
and recruiting.”

Weist joined the UConn staff as offensive coordinator prior to this season, but now finds himself in the top spot of a Division I program -- a quest he began 25 seasons ago as a graduate assistant at the University of Michigan.

The 1983 Bay City All Saints graduate spent the past 25 years on the college coaching
circuit, with stops at Southern Illinois, Tulsa, Indiana, Western Kentucky and
Cincinnati. He got his feet wet at Michigan under Gary Moeller from 1990-93, helping the Wolverines to four postseason berths, including two Rose Bowl appearances.

He steps to the forefront of an 0-4 program, fresh off a 41-12 loss to Buffalo. The Huskies went 10-18 in two-plus seasons under Pasqualoni.

Weist's promotion culminates a journey that began when he decided to attend the University of Alabama as a walk-on wide receiver at 6-foot-3, 130 pounds.

"I doubted all his moves," said his father, Dan Weist, who still resides in Bay City. "I know that's terrible for a parent to say, but to say he's going to play at Alabama? To say he's going to coach at Michigan? Who would believe it? But he always had that passion."

Weist played in just two games with the Crimson Tide, but he remained part of one of the nation's elite programs for all four seasons. After a short stint as a volunteer assistant at Alabama, he made the move to Michigan in the days following the retirement of Bo Schembechler.

Now the youngest of Dan and Mary Lu Weist's eight children has his first opportunity to craft his own head coaching legacy.

"We're getting calls from all his old college teammates and guys who played for him saying 'They're getting the best man ever,'" Dan Weist said. "Whether he wins or loses is not part of his agenda. He's there to coach and show what kind of person he is."

Weist makes his head coaching debut Oct. 12 when the Huskies host the University of South Florida in a noon contest.